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Show 58 Karen and the others then counted the trees in the plot and recorded their species, their heights, and whether the trunks showed any signs of insect damage or f i r e scarring. Some of the plots viere thickly covered viith foot-high seedling trees, which had either grovin naturally or been planted a year e a r l i er by Forest Service crews. Because the Lolo Mountains are very dry in summer, often the seedlings didn't survive. "They just couldn't hang on without moisture," Karen says. "In one area vie found tree after tree dead...those poor l i t t l e trees only ten inches high had just dried up, hundreds of them. I found maybe one live one among a hundred dead ones." Other areas viere growing quite well, and by l a t e autumn were actually too wet for Karen's comfort. "There's a particular type of plant called menzicia," she says, "that has leaves vihich seem shaped just to hold viater. After a rainstorm or after the f i r s t snows had melted, the menzicia bushes would just be viaiting to douse us. And of course they grow about head high. I'd take ten steps through that growth and I ' d be soaked from head to foot." At the end of the timber habitat season i t got downright cold, snowing often, but i t was a pleasant, crisp cold, and the snow-covered mountains looked beautiful. Karen and the others would walk five or six abreast, 66 feet apart, leaving fresh tracks in the newly fallen snow. Stopping in a straight line to call out the trees on the plots, they saw each viord create i t s ovm vireath of vapor. "At least vie could wear gloves," Karen says, "but the guy in the middle who had to write down what we called out nearly froze his hands." After the whole crevi got thoroughly chilled and snow-covered they |